Press Clippings

Bookseller Roxanne Coady shares her new system for helping readers find the perfect summer read—and recommends a few under-the-radar titles that people might have missed.

Click here to read on "The Daily Beast" website

Beth Powning has twice kindly agreed to be guest author for my University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies course Memories into Story: Introduction to Life Writing. I edited Beth’s memoir Edge Seasons (Knopf Canada, 2005). The following are questions some of my students asked Beth after reading three of her short memoirs: “Clotheslines,” “Hearing Loss,” and “A Grandmother’s Love.”

Click Here to Allyson Latta's Blog 

Twice Beth has been guest author for my University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies online course Memories into Story: Introduction to Life Writing, and I edited her memoir Edge Seasons (Knopf Canada, 2005). The following are questions some of my students asked Beth after reading three of her short memoirs: “Clotheslines,” “Hearing Loss,” and “A Grandmother’s Love.”

Click here to read the full story on Allyson Latta's Blog

(Fredericton,  November 9,  2009) 
The  Honorable Graydon  Nicholas  will  present  the  New Brunswick Arts Board’s  Lieutenant-Governor’s Awards  for High Achievement  in  the Arts  in visual arts, performing arts and  literary arts with a value of $20,000 each. For  the  first year of these  awards    there will  be  two  literary  awards,  one  in French  and  one  in English  in  2009  to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the New Brunswick Arts Board. In subsequent years, there will be one award per year in literary arts, alternating between Anglophones and Francophones.  There will  also  be  different  artistic  disciplines  honoured  in  an  alternating  fashion with  these prizes.

At a luncheon at Bank Square Books, Mystic, Conn., for Beth Powning, author of The Sea Captain's Wife (Plume), store co-owners Patience Banister (l.) and Annie Philbrick flank Powning. Philbrick called the event "absolutely fabulous."

Photograph: Peter Powning

With a name like Azuba Galloway, one would expect the heroine of Beth Powning's The Sea Captain's Wife to be anything but ordinary. A young woman growing up in Whelan's Cove, New Brunswick, in the 1860s, Azuba yearns to leave her quiet village and its society women behind and sail around the world on the open ocean.

Click here to read the full review on Readingthepast.com

By AMY J. BARRY Special to the Day

Publication: The Day

Beth Powning takes her readers on an adventure on a 19th-century sailing ship in her new novel, "The Sea Captain's Wife." She also takes us deep into the hearts and minds of her characters, creating a work of fiction that pays as much attention to the people who inhabit its pages as it does to accurate historical detail.

Click here to read the full review on The Day. 

Powning, Beth. The Sea Captain’s Wife. Plume: Penguin Group (USA). Feb. 2011. c.384p. maps. ISBN 9780452296954. pap. $15. F

Since she was a child watching ships set sail from the Bay of Fundy, Azuba has longed for life onboard a ship. Her marriage to Capt. Nathaniel Bradstock appears to fulfill that dream, until her new husband breaks his promise to take her with him and leaves her “safe” at home. But when Azuba’s friendship with the new vicar causes a scandal, Nathaniel brings his family along. Life at sea with a distant husband is not quite what Azuba had envisioned, but she and daughter Carrie quickly adapt to their exciting, sometimes difficult, and always dangerous new life. Powning’s (The Hatbox Letters) latest work is an absorbing novel with evocative descriptions of life at sea in the 1860s. Readers may be left wishing for a bit more character development, as any sense of what makes Nathaniel tick is lost between storms, near starvation, attempted mutiny, pirates, and pregnancy. We see why Azuba loves life at sea but not why she loves her uncommunicative husband. VERDICT This is a compelling historical novel with a strong female protagonist and an exciting plot. Sure to appeal to fans of women’s historical fiction. [Five-city author tour.]—Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., MA

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BELFAST — Beth Powning, author of “The Sea Captain’s Wife,” will speak about her work Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Belfast Free Library, 106 High St. Books will be available from Mr. Paperback at the program to purchase for signing. For more information, call the library at 338-3884, ext. 10.

Read the full story on the Village Soup

Azuba Galloway, the daughter of a ship-builder in Nova Scotia, has always wanted to go to sea. When she falls in love with sea captain Nathaniel Bradstock, they plan to spend their married life together aboard his ship, Traveller. After their marriage and the birth of a daughter, Nathaniel changes his mind and Azuba remains at home. She chafes at being left behind and never settles into the usual pursuits of a sea captain’s wife, but continues to yearn for travel and adventure. After she commits an indiscretion, Nathaniel changes his mind and decides to let her and their young daughter accompany him, albeit reluctantly. At this time in the mid-19th century, many seamen believed it was bad luck to have a woman on a voyage.

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